From Military Spouse to Literary Pioneer

Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton is known as one of the earliest Mexican-American authors published in English, and her life story is tied closely to the Mexican-American war and the establishment of California as a state.

Research:

• Amero, Richard W. “The Mexican-American War in Baja California.” The Journal of San Diego History. Winter 1984, Volume 30, Number 1. https://sandiegohistory.org/journal/1984/january/war/
• Annenberg Learner. “Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton (c. 1832-1895).” https://www.learner.org/series/american-passages-a-literary-survey/masculine-heroes/maria-amparo-ruiz-de-burton-c-1832-1895/
• Brink, Jean R. “María Amparo Ruiz de Burton.” EBSCO Knowledge Advantage. 2023. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/maria-amparo-ruiz-de-burton
• Contreras, Alicia . "María Amparo Ruiz de Burton". In Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature. 3 Sep. 2025. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199827251/obo-9780199827251-0191.xml.
• Contreras, Alicia. "'I'll publish your cowardice all over California': Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton's the squatter and the don in the age of Howells." American Literary Realism, vol. 49, no. 3, spring 2017, pp. 210+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A491311790/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=97ad48d9. Accessed 28 Aug. 2025.
• Crawford, Kathleen. “María Amparo Ruiz Burton.” The Journal of San Diego History. Summer 1984, Volume 30, Number 3. https://sandiegohistory.org/journal/1984/july/burton/
• Diaz, Ella Maria. "Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton: Critical and Pedagogical Perspectives." Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, vol. 22, no. 2, June 2005, pp. 202+. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A141999447/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=1c4826f6. Accessed 28 Aug. 2025.
• Dietrich, Lucas. “A Sensational Job: Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, J.B. Lippincott Co., and Commission Printing.” Bibliographical Society of America. Via YouTube. 4/19/2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb6sfXdUyR8
• Hedrick, Joan D. "Who Would Have Thought It?" The Women's Review of Books, vol. 13, no. 7, Apr. 1996, p. 6. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A19140252/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=c31ab587. Accessed 28 Aug. 2025.
• Meylor, Megan. “California Nerves.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language, FALL 2020, Vol. 62, No. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/27117136
• Quarstein, John V. “Worden and the Californios.” U.S. Naval Institute. October 2023. https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2023/october/worden-and-californios
• Raab, Josef. “The Imagined Inter-American Community of María Amparo Ruiz de Burton.” Amerikastudien / American Studies, 2008, Vol. 53, No. 1. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41158358
• Sánchez, Rosaura and Beatriz Pita, editors. “Conflicts of Interest: The Letters of María Amparo Ruiz de Burton.” Arte Publico Press. University of Houston. 2001.
• Spitzzeri, Paul R. “Article Ten of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848.” Homestead Museum Blog. 5/31/2019. https://homesteadmuseum.blog/2019/05/31/article-ten-of-the-treaty-of-guadalupe-hidalgo-1848/
• “María Amparo Ruiz, a woman of that century.” Issue 30. 3/8/2017. https://tendenciaelartedeviajar.com/en/2017/03/history/maria-amparo-ruiz-a-woman-of-that-century/
• University of Texas Press. “María Amparo Ruiz de Burton and the Conquered Californios: An Interview With Meagan Meylor.” 11/15/2021. https://utpress.utexas.edu/blog/2021/11/15/maria-amparo-ruiz-de-burton-and-the-conquered-californios-an-interview-with-meagan-meylor/
• Women & The American Story. “Life Story: María Ruiz de Burton (1832–1895).” The New York Historical Society. https://wams.nyhistory.org/industry-and-empire/expansion-and-empire/maria-ruiz-de-burton/

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